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Rejoice and Lament
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Oct 7, 2026 updated
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Song Meaning
Josh Garrels opens with a piece of hard-won wisdom: there is a season for both joy and grief, and every one of them eventually ends. The song then moves to a striking image of a man standing on railroad tracks, feet calloused, the sun on his back, listening to winds he cannot see. Those winds carry what he calls eternal wisdom, traveling from heart to mind to hand to journal, and they water a seed hidden in the cleft of a rock. Garrels sets that quiet image against what he calls the clock of chronological logic, a dead system deaf to the voice of God, while the Spirit burns like fire in the dark and reveals a higher way. The middle of the song turns personal and confessional: wax wings melt in the rising sun, the singer descends when undone and ascends when the Spirit comes. From there he widens the frame to all people, wayward sons whose jokes betray foolish hearts, yet who can be changed by turning to the Father's grace. The closing lines return to the opening lesson, leaving the listener with the promise that what fades will be made new again.
Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team
Learn this lesson well, my friend
There's a time to rejoice and lament
Every season will find an end
All will fade and be made new again
Standing on the rocks of the railroad tracks
Feet calloused, eyes open, sun beats on my back
As I gaze upon the unseen winds
And they are wandering, whispering
Wisdom that's eternal
From the heart to the mind
To the hand to the journal
Now the kernel of the seeds in the cleft of the rock
And it's watered by the winds
Having power to unlock and
Stop the clock of chronological logic
With its homogenized systems
That are dead and can't dodge it
Being deaf to the voice of the Almighty One
Spirit illumines the dark like a fire
Revealing the way that was hidden but is higher
Now we must travel on the wings
That will never grow tired
Of searching the mysteries of God
I said Father the feathers of my wax wings
Fall away by the rising of the sun
And I have descended when I was undone
And I will ascend when your Spirit comes
Because what's been done and overcome
Cannot be stopped by the power of any human
Like the number of sand we will stand
And we will fall, all
In the face of an eternal call
But those who call on His name
In the midst of the pain
In the guilt and the shame
And the world full of blame
And all the bloody stains
From the unjust gains
I learned all men suffer the same
Because we're wayward sons
And all our jokes betray
Our foolish hearts and our selfish ways
But if we would turn to the Father's grace
We would never be the same
This is an unseen land of a devastated soul
That's prepared in contemplative silence
For the mighty working hand of an unseen Lord
To come restore this land from its violence
I said walk another mile
Stare across the fields of grain
This is how the prophets train
Learn this lesson well my friend
There's a time to rejoice and lament
Every season will find an end
All will fade and be made new again